UPDATE: I thought it would be easier for those interested in this to have the table in markdown rather than as a dropbox link. Below is the MD created table.
In my journey to settle on my Note and Task management applications I created a table to compare the various features of Apple Notes, Craft, and iA Writer. I have the features listed in relative priority for my needs. Others will have different needs and preferences.
CAVEATS: I am not claiming comprehensiveness. I may have left out features from one or more of the three applications. I may have made a mistake in assessing a feature—if so, let me know. Finally, I am not attempting to compare other apps like Obsidian, Bear, etc., only the three I’ve listed because these are the apps I’ve been most interested in using. iA Writer is listed because it can be a nice bridge working with markdown files that are created in Obsidian.
With that said, here is my table. I hope this is helpful to others. It was created in Apple Notes.
CORRECTED: @anon41602260 was kind enough to point out two typos in my table. I have corrected those.
Features of Apple Notes, Craft & iA Writer Compared
| Feature | Apple Notes | Craft | iA Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| File format | Proprietary | Json | Plain text |
| Sync across devices | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Embed files (PDF, Pages, Numbers Word, Image, etc) | Yes | Yes | Yes using MD transclusion (cumbersome) |
| Task export | Reminders with link, Things with NO link | Things with link | Reminders with link, Things with NO link |
| Tables | Yes | Yes but they export in MD format | MD only |
| Export | PDF, MD, Word, MD, Image, Textbundle | PDF, Word, MD, HTML | |
| Manually sort files | No | Yes | (Files can be opened in any application that supports plain text files) |
| External Linking | Yes but cumbersome (share, create link, copy, paste—except to other Apple applications. Easier on iOS-just copy link) | Yes via Deeplinks | No |
| Embedded text hyperlinks | Yes on Mac, Yes iOS but cumbersome | Yes | No |
| Find and Replace | Yes but replace is not available on iOS | Yes | Ye |
| Text to speech | Yes | No | Yes |
| Spelling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Grammar | Yes | No | Yes |
| Internal Linking | Yes but cumbersome (share, create link, copy, paste) | Yes | No |
| Screen Zoom | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tags | Yes | No | Yes |
| Smart Folders | Yes | No | No |
| Footnotes | No | No | Yes MD [^] |
| Open files in other applications | No | Only if exported to MD, Word or PDF | Yes |
| Dictation | Yes | Yes | No |
| Change text color | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Highlight text | No | Yes | Yes with MD |
| Lock note | Yes | No | No |
| Text Recognition in images, PDFs; OCR image text in full text search | Yes | No | No |
| Apple Pencil Support | Yes | Yes, limited | No |
| Markdown | No | Yes | Yes |
| Quick Note | Yes | No | No |
| “Add a link” to an open external application | Yes | No | No |
| Take photo or add sketch from iPad or iPhone directly (not import) | Yes | No | No |
| Create note with Siri | Yes | No | No |
| Scan to add document, image | Yes | Yes | No |
| Share and collaborate | Yes | Yes | No |
| Add comments | No | Yes | No |
